Let those who wept as they planted their crops, gather the harvest with joy!
Those who wept as they went out carrying the seed will come back singing for joy, as they bring in the harvest. – Psalm 126: 5-6 (Good News translation)
This past Wednesday, we completed our Lenten Evening Prayer series, “Stories of the Pandemic.” Each week a different member of the congregation shared a story about their experience of the pandemic times and the ways that they were encountered by God. If you have not watched all of them, I encourage you to go back and review them. They are each unique and powerful accounts of God at work in our lives. You can find the videos at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCljuAhV69SwBqK7V58tScLA and look at the “Past Live Streams” section for the places listed as “Wednesday Worship Service.”
To give a short recap of the stories that we heard, the series started on March 9. That week, we heard Denise Cole talk about the fear of the first days of the pandemic, especially going into a hospital to visit her father. She also talked about the anxieties of the strife in the world, and coming to find ways to engage it productively. She also shared the challenges and joys of having an elementary school-aged child at home during that time. The next week, Ruth Fausak spoke of the heartbreaking reality of enduring the death of a spouse during the days of tightest restrictions. She spoke of the pain of the enforced separation and the important moments stolen by the virus. She also pointed to the blessing of St. Matthew as a community of faith that gave its support in such difficult times. In the third week, Kim Villani shared the difficulties of having twelve family members simultaneously sick with Covid. Her parents were in different hospitals, and her pregnant daughter also hospitalized at the same time. She shared the struggle of needing to support all of these people in their difficulties while sick herself and unable to visit with them. Yet she too spoke of God’s sustaining presence in the midst of it all. The following week, JoAnn Lawrence spoke of a different type of loss. Her father had died a few months before the pandemic, and she had cared for him for a long time prior to that. She had just begun to reclaim a sense of freedom when the restrictions came down, taking her back into older patterns and struggles. Yet she shared the power of re-framing the situation, of learning to accept what life gives as a gift of God, and how that helped her learn how to begin to find peace and gratitude in whatever comes. Finally, this past week Ed Hammond shared about being hospitalized this past winter after a fall while ice skating. Even in the challenges of recovering, he found connections with other people that he came across in the hospital and rehab facility. He talked about the moments of grace that God brought about during a time that would seem to have been a time full of pain. Each of the stories was unique and powerful. They were faithful testimonies of God at work in our lives, bringing renewal, sustaining presence, and the promise of healing into some of the biggest of life’s difficulties. My short synopsis does not do justice to their stories; please watch them if you have not yet done so.
The central idea behind this weekly devotion, these sights and insights from the week, is to point to the ways that God shows up not just in the world in an abstract sense but specifically in our lives. Often I share a moment from my week and how I see God in the midst of it. Yet one does not need
to be a pastor to find God at work in our everyday existence. These stories of the pandemic are testaments to God with us. As we move through Holy Week this week, we proclaim that in Jesus God walked through life and endured the sufferings of this world, bringing to us the sublime promise of God’s eternal promise and presence with us. As we hear the story of Jesus, may we be reminded that God with us extends from Jesus on the cross into our lives, bringing Easter joy into all of the ups and downs of our lives.